Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (2011-02-08)

It must have been in a junior high science class looking through microscopes at teensy tiny organisms that I had my first tweak of thought regarding the size of worlds. Decades ago, before modern computers and computer animation, my brothers and I watched the now "classic" movie Fantastic Voyage starring Raquel Welch in an adventure where a team of doctors in a submarine gets shrunk down microscopically and then get injected into a sick man so that they can internally perform surgery to remove a blood clot from the man's brain. At the time science fiction didn't get any better than that and we were enthralled. It was with the same sense of great fun that I watched the story of Incarceron unfold.This great story had aspects of an adventure quest, dystopian reality, and a fairy tale all seamless woven together to make a most enjoyable read. In the past year or so I've read several "prison" stories [Gordon Smith's, Lockdown and Solitary; Cory Doctorow's Little Brother etc.] but I felt that Incarceron has much more of an adventure quest feel to it than some of these others. This adventure-quest feel to the story may make it more appealing to readers who are not especially fond of science-fiction type books. A similarity Incarceron shares with Little Brother and books in the Hunger Games series is wonderfully resourceful and gutsy females as well as interesting male characters. This solidly told tale has enough action to keep a younger reader involved with the story but the reading level seemed to me to be a bit higher level than say The Hunger games or other similar books. I'll most likely be recommending this story to confident teen readers who don't mind the challenge of a longer story. One noteworthy gem of a quote popped out of this story [I probably missed others as I was pretty focused on just enjoying the story] "None of us have much idea of where we are. Perhaps all our lives we are too concerned with where, and not enough with who." Yep, it's all about relationships and this is a great story to read about some interesting ones.flag

I liked this book. I thought it was original, specially the way that it's supposed to be in the future with all this technology, but at the same time they are stuck in the past. It's a good story, no doubt about it.The twist about Incarceron itself was good, but I did not like the way the author lack to describe Incarceron. I love to read a story where I can imagine every single detail of the place I'm reading, specially something that does not exist. I thought there was more description about the world outside - which I know well and I don't need to be told how the flowers smell - Than the one inside Incarceron. I still don't have any idea what it really looks like and I hate that. I mean, yes there were tunnels, yes there were metal trees but that's it. I can't really imagine the whole Incarceron world and I think in a fiction book like this one it is VERY important to explain and describe every detail of the world you are trying to imagine.Overall a good original plot but a weak description. I hope Sapphique answers some of the questions I have..... Just finished reading Sapphique, a word of advice: Don't even bother. It did answer my questions related to the prison, but overall a very weak, not interesting book. Poor ending and lack of romance at the end. I don't recommend it.

Incarceron is a prison. It is the largest prison to ever exist. Civilizations have grown inside of it, people wandering, building cities, but all under Incarceron's watchful eye. Incarceron is alive.Finn is a prisoner and a starseer. During fits of illness, he sees bouts of a past he doesn't remember, as well as Sapphique, the legend of hope to whom every prisoner looks. Finn, however feels there is no hope. None at all. Until he finds the Key. It is something he remembers from a long time ago, from that same past that torments him.Claudia is in the Outside, and she is destined to be queen. But however magnificent her father makes it out to be, she doesn't want the title; not after what happened to Prince Giles, her first fiance. She starts to wonder, based off a few clues, if Giles was actually killed, like the Queen and the court said. And then she finds the Key...I love it when I pick up a book and just know it's going to be a good one. While I didn't "pick this one up" in a literal sense, when I found it on Amazon, I just knew I was going to love it.I was right.For one, Incarceron is expertly written and crafted, from first page to last. Each character displayed Fisher's amazing ability to give life to the story, with their individual strengths and weeknesses that make them human. (My favorite character was Jared... He's one of those characters you wish you could meet.)On word I could use to describe this book would be: smooth. There are no breaks in the story, where you wonder when it will pick up again. This leaves me with only one more thing to say: When the sequal, Sapphique, comes out later this year, I'm going to buy it. Because I know I will enjoy it.(I feel obligated to say that while this is a very clean book, one of the more rough characters hates one of the female characters and calls her a "little b**ch". It is repeated five times over the course of 450 pages.)